Harcourts Real Estate – Dapto

We saved $1200 pa on our electricity bills!

Solar power system installed
4.91kW system using SunPower 327W panels and a 5kW ABB inverterOverviewHarcourts franchisees Michael Garside & Aimee Nicholls always liked the idea of installing solar, but were always too busy to actively seek out quotes. When approached by The Energy Experts, they were open to the idea of reducing their electricity bills.

We provided them with some estimates of how much they could expect to reduce their bill (just over half) and they decided to proceed with the installation of a 4.91kW SunPower system.

“We decided to go with a premium solar power system because our plan is to be here long term and we wanted to get a system that would keep on performing well into the future. We also have quite limited roof space, and SunPower was the only brand that would allow us to fit a 5kW system on the roof,” says Aimee Nicholls.

Harcourt’s usage is Monday-Saturday during daylight hours. With reasonably high bills and a roof facing due north, the company saw the benefits of installing a solar PV system.

“We’re really glad we made the move. Electricity is one overhead we don’t need to worry about anymore,” says Nicholls.

Express Smash Repairs – Oak Flats

Our ROI came in under 4 years!

Current electricity billAverage consumption: 36.5kWh/day
Average cost: $320/qtrOverview
Sandra Potts who manages Express Smash Repairs approached The Energy Experts for help in reducing her company’s electricity bills. The business’ usage is almost exclusively during daylight hours Monday-Saturday.

With big electricity bills and roof space facing both north and west, the business was a prime candidate for installing a significant size solar PV system.

After analysing the company’s electricity bills The Energy Experts determined that a 26kW system was the most appropriate size, as it would allow the business to offset all of its daytime consumption and feed some surplus energy back into the grid with the view to install a battery storage solution by 2019, when the cost of batteries is financially viable. It also allowed for the extra energy usage that a new spray booth would consume.

As well as installing a 26kW system (using Trina 260W panels and a 27kW ABB inverter), the team also installed a complete Solar Analytics energy monitoring solution. Each month, Express Smash Repairs receives a detailed report outlining their system’s production versus the business’ energy consumption. We also receive this information and can see the seasonal fluctuations and if the system has been compromised in any way. eg. bird droppings on a panel.

“My husband and I had already installed solar power on our home through Carolyn Lee from The Energy Experts,” says Sandra Potts, Operations Manager at Express Smash Repairs.

“We saw how much our bills came down as soon as the system was installed. I suggested to my boss that he also look at installing a system, as I’d noticed that the bills had kept going up over the last few years. He was open to the idea as long as the ROI was less than 5 years.

With the deal we were able to negotiate through The Energy Experts, our ROI actually came in under 4 years. We’ve been really pleased with the service we received and find the monthly monitoring data we get very useful.”